A site about feeling beautiful

It is nearly August (and my August Glossy Box arrived today) so I figured I should probably share my June Glossy Box items. June’s theme was Beauty Around the World. Each of the items are from different places on the globe.

Here is another company which has dropped off the face of the earth, and with good reason I suppose. If you are a company looking to get into the sample subscription business please learn from these other companies shortcomings and failures. Sindulge was plagued with issues since its debut. The idea was to have a consultation with a personal beauty curator to help define what sorts of products you should be sent. Both times that I had a consultation the “Video chat” was not working…but I didn’t receive any notification from the consultant that I needed to switch over to the text platform – and it seemed the consultants were distracted, because the text conversations were very slow. The samples were not sent promptly, though they did resemble the conversation, and customer service was lacking. All in all, had I not started with a 1 year subscription, I would have been droping them after this anyway.

What all was included for May or June or whatever month it was supposed to be for?

I know I don’t normally do this, but I just read a couple books you may not have heard of. Usually the books I read are quite mainstream and there are bazillions of reviews and bits of info on the books.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a member of Bzz agent and part of their program is that they give you items to try so that you can share information on it. You should know by now that I will say whether I like or don’t like something, so I figure: they gave me this book to share info about so I should share (good or bad).

The Hangman’s Daughter and the Dark Monk were both originally written in German, Oliver Pötzsch’s native language. The translation seems good, but I suspect some of the nuance was left out.

The story, a who-done-it mystery, was interesting and held my attention, but it was not a “read it over-and-over again” type of novel. I like being able to solve the mystery ahead of the book revealing it – but the villians were not really people that any clues pointed to, which was a disappointment to me. Additionally, and this is probably the classic literature snob in me, the characters remained the same throughout. No one seemed to grow or learn from what occurred, it was as if they went through the motions of the story and came out the exact same person.

All in all, the book was enjoyable and I’d recommend it to someone looking for an interesting change from what they normally read. It is a reasonably priced novel and provides a weekend’s worth of entertainment.

Would I read each a second time? No

Were they worth finishing? Yes

Would I recommend this to a friend? Yes, it is worth a read – and you might like it more than me

FTC Disclosure: This review contains a sample product sent for consideration by PR (bzzagent.com). My priority is to you, and I honor that commitment by being honest! I do not conduct paid reviews or guarantee reviews. I promise to remain truthful with you. If you are uncertain what this all means, I suggest you to read my Disclosure Policyfor further clarification.

Today I bring you the Sisley-Paris Hydra Global Intense Anti-Aging Hydration lotion. I had planned on saying that spending that much money on a face cream was ludicrous. I can’t say that.

This thick, rich, luxurious cream is what skin care dreams are made of. God I wish I had $250.00. This cream is supposed to return your skin’s hydration balance giving you a more youthful appearance. I used it the first night, and thought “meh- it is similar to the Erno Laszlo velvet night cream” then I kept using it – for about 5 nights before I ran out. Every morning my skin felt better and better and better – seriously! My face felt soft and smooth, like it had before I hit puberty and had issues with acne. My bb cream went on smoother and more evenly (which I thought was impossible since it went on so nice before), and overall it just looked better.

I swear I didn’t remember this was my expensive face sample at the time, I just had it out on my counter and used it – then I was thinking “I love this” so I went back to see what box it was from – my heart sank. I can’t afford this – but I need this!

In any case, if you have the cash to spare, get it – seriously you will not be sorry, it is AMAZING. If you have even more cash to spare please get me one!

Would I buy this again? I plan to save up for it – but my husband is liable to kill me if he sees the price tag.

FTC Disclaimer: Not affiliated with nor compensated by Beauty Bar Sample Society or any of the brands included in the box. Items purchased by me for my own personal use. For more information please review my disclosure policy.

Today I bring you what is probably the last Look Bag review that I will write. On July 18th I received the following note:

As many of you know, we have been experiencing some troubles in the recent months with our beauty sample program The Look Bag. We have thought very long and hard about this decision and it very much saddens us to say that we have decided to discontinue The Look Bag while we refocus on The Look Store.com to bring you the very best in celebrity beauty picks.

Those that have purchased gift subscriptions for 3, 6 and 12 months, or yearly subscriptions will be refunded for remaining months. Those who have not yet been charged for July, will not be receiving a July bag.

My guess is that I will NOT be getting a July bag as we are 9 days from August. Bummer! That’s okay – I really did feel like we were being sent mostly older items that were no longer in style.

They sent the June bag out at the end of June instead of the beginning explaining that they were trying to package their products more carefully after complaints of subscribers.

Today I bring you the June Beauty Bar Sample Society Box. This box is filled with premium goodies again, and that is sooo exciting to me that I can try things lots of times if I want – in order to decide if I want to purchase it in the future. Yes they are mostly still samples – but they are big enough that if I took a week or two vacation I could take them along and not run out until the last day!

I’m was pleased with the boxes contents at first glimps (even though I don’t like perfume samples) and happily began using the products.

So what was included in the box AND how did I like the products? (more…)

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I am a coffee snob. When I was a kid in the ’80’s my dad would go to this hip coffee bar and buy imported whole beans from exoctic and unique locations. When I started drinking coffee I quickly realized I could taste a vast difference between my dad’s botique coffee and everything else (Folgers, Uban, Maxwell House….).

Then I got hooked on fufu coffees from coffee shops, like vanilla latte or white mochas. In the summer I always enjoyed a blended beverage or iced coffee from these places. A couple times I tried making iced coffee at home with no real luck. Then along comes the Green Mountain “Brew Over Ice” coffee. I didn’t expect much, but I figured I’d give it a shot (I’d been given samples to try at home to share my opinion on from BzzAgent). I put my tumbler full of ice under my Keurig and pushed the middle button. One minute later I had an iced coffee in front of me. I tasted it, it was good, but for iced beverages I had gotten used to a sweetness. I put some of my flavored creamer in and voila… I had an amazing tasting beverage.

A couple days later I was running errands and stopped at the popular chain I always frequent and ordered an iced hazelnut latte – I poked my straw in and my blissful flavor was not there…I went home later, brewed another Hazelnut iced coffee from Green Mountain in my Keurig and I once again had happy taste buds. I am now a “brew over ice” convert and won’t waste any more money on iced coffees at those chain stores.

You might like it, you might not, but for the price of 2 drinks from a chain you can get a box of 16 iced drinks – seems a reasonable price to pay for a possible taste bud love affair!

Side note, the Celestial Seasonings (lemonade iced tea and Sweet Southern Tea) were both very good, but I’m not much of an ICED tea drinker so I probably won’t get them again – but if you like iced tea – go for it!

FTC Disclosure: This review contains a sample product sent for consideration by PR (bzzagent.com). My priority is to you, and I honor that commitment by being honest! I do not conduct paid reviews or guarantee reviews. I promise to remain truthful with you. If you are uncertain what this all means, I suggest you to read my Disclosure Policyfor further clarification.